"We're not getting anywhere with this"
Fives and Tup's disguises were wearing thin, running down a back alley, the pair of them had somehow managed to be identified by their accents alone and because criminals here that weren't on drugs, alcohol or with partners to pleasure, were surprisingly sharp. Savouring the last meal they'd had, heading down this far into Coruscant put both clones completely out of their depth. It was pitch black down here and the only sources of light, came from seedy bars and clubs, that they both realised they weren't welcome within and through technology neither of them thought existed at these depths and through the sharp minds of bounty hunters and criminals lurking in these parts, they'd ran from one place to the next.
"This is ridiculous...!" Tup panted, as they ran through the alley, their helmets returned to their heads as they no longer had the pretence of a disguise, before they could reach the end to the ally, they found their way blocked by a dozen, fellow humans. However all of them held blasters with maniacal looks in their eyes.
"Where are you clones going!?" One of them barked sinisterly.
"You shouldn't be down here policing us!" another one exclaimed "You're gonna learn wha…!"
Tup squeezed his finger on the trigger to his blaster. Despite the poor visibility, he landed it square behind the man's eyes, he yelped and fell to the ground, his enraged colleagues fired back instantly, with no cover, Fives took action fast and ducked to the ground, rolled over and pulled out his own blaster, firing back at the rabble along with Tup, the firefight was over before it had even started, with both clones emerging victorious, yet howls of rage and curiosity in the dark, drew others to the scene.
"Go and turn your helmet off!" Fives commanded.
"We won't be able to see..." Tup began.
"Night vison through our visors, have you forgotten that!?" Fives snapped.
"Oh right, should have done that in first place" Tup gasped.
"Are you alright?" Fives inquired, noting Tup sounded as if he was in pain.
"I'm fine... I...it doesn't matter we need to move..."
Move they did, finding the dirtiest, most out of the way backstreet between abandoned buildings that could physically find, the space was confined and clogged with rubbish and mutated rodents, not even the screams and howls of the Coruscant's most depraved reached them here, everything stank through their helmets and taking them off and trying to relax and gain their bearings, was impossible with rodents scurrying around and being next to blind without them, so they kept their helmets on their heads for the time being.
"Well, I think we lost them" Fives eventually whispered, before he sighed "So what is it Tup? What's wrong?"
"Blaster got me" he showed his arm there, where a small scorch mark had formed, removing the armour from that section and squinting his own eyes, Fives could see a nasty red welt forming there. Their protective gear had spared Tup a more serious injury, but there was no doubt this was going to pain him for a couple of days and maybe weeks. The skin around the blast had essentially started to melt, leaving something of a very itchy and painful blister. Thankfully their General had thought ahead and because of this Fives could slap some specialised ointment onto the affected area.
"That should stop the swelling and itching" Fives said rubbing the lotion in "Still distrust the general Tup? If it wasn't for him, we wouldn't have this".
"I... I don't know Fives..." Tup said, he looked dimly around him " Anyway what did we learn this time? Everywhere we've scouted, they know we're clones. What little intel we've gathered we know they're setting up some sort of criminal empire, we know the three Jedi are after them. Ahsoka, Quinlan Vos and bloody Ventress... but we can't find them..."
"I really couldn't care less about Vos or Ventress" Fives informed him "We're here for Ahsoka, that's all".
"Yeah" Tup agreed "Damn it!" he suddenly snapped.
"What?"
"Fuckin' rodents" Tup swore "I hate them, I hate the way they move, I hate the little squeaking noises they make..."
"Oh come on Tup" Five muttered "They're like mice, compared to what we saw on Felucia, a rodent barely the size of your foot is bothering you?"
"There's a lot of them" Tup reasoned.
Fives sighed, he stood up and planted himself next to where Tup was leant against the wall, "Now I'm here, you can sleep in peace. I'll make sure the bed-rodents don't bite".
"I'll take first guard" Tup said "Besides do we have to sleep here!? Of all places!?"
"Oh right my bad" Fives said "We'll go and visit the five star hotel we passed on the way here, comes with no other guests, a way to disguise us fully and comfy beds just waiting for us to share and with an added bonus, no, bloody rats!" Fives exclaimed in sarcasm.
"Alright, alright I get it..." Tup snapped "This is for our safety and what not, yada... yada... OI!" he suddenly snapped, darting upwards and flinging the panicking rat off his visor, "The hell was that for!?" he snarled openly at where Fives was chuckling heartily to himself.
"Lighten up Tup" Fives said, "It's just a rat".
"Just a rat, just a rat..." Tup said "Fine then..." he said, his own brand of mischief coming to the fore "I'll show what just a rat is...!"
He wrestled Fives to the ground, tore the helmet from his head and managed to clamp his hand around a rat in the dark and dropped the struggling thing on Fives' face. Now it was time for the ARC trooper to gasp and wipe the thing away from himself. But Tup was already trying to place another struggling rodent into his armour, Fives twitched horribly as Tup laughed himself hoarse at how his fellow ally was moving, eventually when the small thing had freed itself, a fuming Fives leapt on Tup, removed his helmet and threw a rat at him.
"Oh, you're on now!" Tup said, accepting the challenge.
The next couple of minutes became something of a wrestling match, with both clones flinging rats, dirt, mud and god-knows what else at each other. Eventually with his arms feeling as heavy as dumbbells, his lungs near enough empty and panting for rotten air, a heavily sweating Tup collapsed against the wall next to Fives. Both of them still smiling and laughing, with Tup deciding to pick up another fistful of sludge and dropping it all over Fives exposed head.
"Cute" Fives replied, spitting the stuff out onto Tup himself.
"You know we have no way of washing ourselves" Tup said, attempting to wipe off some of the mess that had engulfed his face and armour.
"Well we'll fit right in down here then" was Fives only reply "Maybe that's what we've been doing wrong".
Tup laughed.
"I doubt it, we're just rotten clones after all" he muttered in misery, Fives went to say something, before Tup spoke up once again.
"But I'm really glad you're here Fives" he mused, clearly in a better mood than he was beforehand "I know this is strange..." he continued "But what do you want to do when this war is over?".
"Not go back to Kamino" was the only reply Fives could think of at the top of his head.
"I mean, like… something worthwhile" Tup said "I've been thinking Fives, maybe we could... I don't know... get a place together here on Coruscant. An apartment for clones or something, near to 79's... serve as guards there or something. Get an income, go out for a drink. Earn a living, meet people and..." he stopped there "It's just stupid isn't it? Thinking like that? Why do I even bother...?"
He paused there, Fives didn't know what he was thinking or doing when he pulled Tup closer to him, his shoulder wrapped around Tup's back in a brotherly embrace. Both friends were fond of each other and felt it in those moments, they'd been through so much and saved each other so many times. This war had dragged on for so long, both expendable clones had survived for so long and (in the short space of time they'd been down here) been completely on their own and reliant on each other. The bonds of trust and brotherhood between these two had reached it's peak.
Tup wasn't supposed to have independent thoughts or dreams and yet here he was, dreaming and here Fives was, generally starting to believe the pair of them could survive anything and live a normal life once the war was over, yet the fear of losing Tup played at the back of his mind. After everything he'd lost. Hevy, Echo and the rest of the squad, 99, so many of his brothers he'd known to be slain. After Echo had perished at the Citadel, Fives couldn't handle the thought of losing someone else dear to him, he held onto Tup, as his exhausted brother fell to sleep, his head resting on Fives' shoulder.
"No one else" Fives thought to himself.
"GET DOWN!"
The droids came from every angle, but they were no match for Anakin, who'd been so eager to get back into the action after weeks of moping, he'd taken the lead and darted around the clearing, slaying any droid that came close, with excitement and adrenaline coursing through his system. Finally he was able to move and fight again! The last time he'd been like this, he'd been fighting on Ringo Vida, right before he received the news of Padme's passing, he'd acted so reckless that time...
He was acting reckless once again, but as he sliced his way through the regular droid models and the Super Battle droids that came trawling through the undergrowth, he realised he didn't care. The clone troopers around him we're all holding their own and this squadron didn't appear to be a large one. Before Anakin could even break a sweat it was all over, the droids lying in pieces around him, the night was as silent as it once had been.
"Clear!" he heard Rex exclaim, as Anakin withdrew his lightsabre and looked back at the squad.
"Anyone hurt!?" he asked of them all.
No-one, the clones remained standing, C3PO and R2 had reactivated during the skirmish, but they appeared just fine.
"Woah, woah, first time fighting clankers!" Doormat exclaimed in joy "That was easy!"
"Yeah, too easy" Rex said suspiciously, sharing a look with Anakin "Doesn't that strike you as odd?"
"Possibly" Anakin replied, inspecting the skies "I don't know Rex, maybe that was just the first wave".
"I don't know, Rex has a point there" Appo muttered, "If they wanted to get rid of us, which they clearly do. Why send a droid faction as small as that? They know we can handle it, they had the whole fleet up there. They could have overwhelmed us very easily".
"Maybe they just want us captured alive and didn't want to risk..." Doormat began.
"Then they'd have sent more droids to simply stun us" Rex said "and that's never happened before... something's wrong..."
Just as he said that a familiar howl came out of the darkness, one that made Anakin break into a smile and laugh to himself "Well boys we've finally attracted the attention of the locals" he said, he noticed a fair, few, large wookies emerging on their clearing. Each of them holding their bow-like blasters to their chests "It's okay!" he called out to the wookies "We're here for..."
A blast went off.
Within seconds they had charged.
Instantly three clones were ripped apart by the wookies, who tore off their legs and arms with the brute force Wookies were infamous for, but now these dark-furred creatures were howling with more menace, an additional two clones were fatally shot down by the blaster fire of the other wookies, Anakin barely had any time to react, as he deflected a dozen blasters aimed at himself, the presence of his blue lightsabre only made the native population howl further in fear and anger as they charged at him.
"THE HELL IS GOING ON!?" Doormat exclaimed in a panic, as Rex blasted a charging Wookie that was heading straight towards the new clone.
"ASK QUESTIONS LATER, SHOOT NOW!" He demanded.
A.N: Hope you enjoyed and lionkingfactsguy3 the Vos and Ventress flirting is always great for me to write about and I'm glad you liked it! Next chapter will be out soon!